Tags
Conn Iggulden, England, Field of Glory, Field of Glory II, Field of Glory II Medieval, Margaret of Anjou, shakespeare, Wars of the Roses
In the end, I did find my copy of Bloodline. It was under a box that was filled with other books that I have yet to read.
Bloodline picks up where the previous book in the series, Margaret of Anjou, left us off. That is to say, Margaret of Anjou was just victorious at Wakefield (Sandal Magna) and now has begun marching her army, under Henry Beaufort, Duke of Sommerset, south towards London. Meanwhile, Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick (that is, the Kingmaker) has ridden north from London to meet the Queen at St. Albans.
The Lancastrian army moved slowly; it being ill-provisioned in winter and Warwick took advantage of the down time to prepare defensive positions. I took advantage of the subject of my reading to try out a new scenario set in Field of Glory II: Medieval.
Let me back up a little. Throughout the summer, I’ve sporadically read about a project from stockwellpete (a user and scenario maker about whom I’ve written before) where he is putting together what he calls a “text campaign” for the Wars of the Roses. The idea is that there are a series of scenarios to be played in order (with some branching based on results). Outside of the game itself, players keep a tally of the commanders and heirs of the era. The results should be that the campaign moves forward not only based upon wins and losses in battle, but also based upon the historical context. The “commanders” within Field of Glory field are assigned (again, by the players and outside of the PC game) names of various nobility. The survival or lack thereof of various personalities is a major contributor to the trajectory of the campaign.
If what I say above sounds speculative, it is because I don’t actually have a copy of that campaign. My assumption is that it is a word document or at least something similar. In order to get it, I’d have to request OneDrive access from stockwellpete himself. I have not done that. By way of contrast, the component battles of the campaign are already available within the Field of Glory II campaign and scenario system and can be downloaded through the game’s interface. This much I have done. What I know of the text campaign itself I know from the “previews” that were posted in a forum thread as it all was being created.
The campaign is built for multiplayer and I am even going to go so far as to assume that it needs the competitive involvement of human players to make it work right. I’m not looking for some competitive play at this time but I think I can get the gist of it all from the previews. I wouldn’t mind reading through the whole thing. For example, one thing I would like to understand how he handles it is the death or capture of commanders. As far as I’ve experienced, the loss of a commander appears only fleetingly in the UI during combat resolution. Does that notice of loss result in death, capture, or incapacitation? Is it always one of these, or are the extra “rolls” to make à la Crown of Roses? Surely this is all in the rules. I also wonder if there is advice about how to keep track of that loss which, as far as I know, doesn’t show up in the post-game battle summary.
Anyway, to keep this particular tale shorter than I might otherwise make it, the end of all this is that one of the battles now available is the Second Battle of St. Albans. I can, and did, download it just as I am reading of the same in Bloodline.
As the screenshot shows, the forces are aligned very linearly. Compare and contrast with the same battle as depicted (show screen only) in Pike and Shot, where the scenario designer tried to deliberately depict Warwick’s fixed defenses and the flanking maneuver on the map. Forcing the armies into their historical alignment and eliminating the elements of the battle that never came into play – this should help rather than detract from game play. It did seem to do so for me; I found the Field of Glory II version more comprehensible.
Playing out battles within their historical context makes Field of Glory II much more fun to play. Even without the benefit of the overarching text campaign and even with all the nobles’ names left blank, stockwellpete’s St. Albans is more enjoyable than any points-based, random match-up of period armies. And that is before you start to dig into the “extras” that are part of this scenario.
The text campaign’s scenarios, having enlisted the aid of FoG2‘s designers, include extras relative to the stand-alone game. Fighting the battle, you’ll notice mixed pike-and-archer units that you’ve never seen before. But don’t enjoy them too much – after a limited number of volleys, the arrows (or gunpowder, if you happen to be playing York’s side) are spent and you have just a melee unit.
I know I am not using stockwellpete’s work in the way that he intended but I find that misusing as I do suits my purpose. Maybe next time the Yorks meet the Lancasters in Iggulden’s series, I have more to share in this regard.